Quaternary trialkylammonium compounds have a variety of commercial applications in the textile industry and in the personal care arena. Some of these compounds can also be used as anti-microbial agents; in modifying fillers, fibers, and surfaces; as thickening agents; and as conditioning agents.
In many of these applications and uses, it is desirable to provide the quaternary trialkylammonium compound in a high purity form to ensure that undesirable effects of impurities are minimized. Conventional compositions either lack acceptable concentrations of the quaternary trialkylammonium compounds while possessing more or less innocuous impurities while other products may have higher concentrations of the quaternary trialkylammonium halide compounds but also possess undesirable amounts of more noticeable impurities. One such impurity is residual trialkylamine because they have a characteristically unpleasant odor. For example, the human nose can detect a fishy odor when, one such amine, trimethylamine is present in concentrations as low as about 0.0023 ppm. Thus, quaternary trialkylammonium halides prepared from such trialkylamine precursors often possess offensive odors even when diluted in formulations. Consequently, compositions having higher concentrations of the quaternary trialkylammonium halide and reduced levels of impurities, as well as processes for preparing such compounds by more efficient methods, would be useful.